Lamps incorporate light sources, such as light bulbs or tubes. Each lamp produces its own light pattern. In applications such as horticulture lighting, laboratory lighting or electronic display screens, the location and distribution of the light patterns can be very important. For example, if plants or cell cultures on one area of a table receive substantially less light than plants or cell cultures on another area of the table, those with less light can suffer in their development, growth, production yield or health. The low intensity zones can also cause undesirable dimness in areas of display screens with internal lamps.
In horticulture and laboratory applications, users are known to place items (e.g., plants or cell cultures) in select locations in attempts to reduce these negative effects of the low intensity zones. However, the known lamps have relatively high variations in the magnitudes of their low intensity zones. These variations increase the difficulty in managing the positions of the items, often leading to underdevelopment or harm of a significant quantity of items. In display screen applications, these relatively high variations in intensity can increase the complexity in regulating the displays to generate high quality images.
In addition, the heat generated by the lamps can have several disadvantages. The heat can damage, harm, injure or lower the life span of items. In the case of horticulture or laboratory lighting, the heat can kill plants or cell cultures, or the heat can diminish their development, production yield or health. Also, the heat can reduce the life span of the electronic components of the light fixtures, display screens or other modules which house the lamps.
The foregoing background describes some, but not necessarily all, of the problems, disadvantages and shortcomings related to the known lamps.